MTA officials say a man is accused of “strangling” an MTA bus driver after a crash in Brooklyn

BROOKLIN (WABC) — A man has been accused of “strangling” an MTA bus driver after a crash in Brooklyn on Tuesday.

The suspect appeared in court on Wednesday and, despite allegedly committing a violent crime, was released on supervised release.

MTA leaders and union bosses say this is another example of the dangers MTA workers face every day.

Shevaughn Legall, 25, left Brooklyn criminal court with his public defender and didn’t try to explain anything, but MTA officials are outraged.

“No serious physical injuries are alleged here. This does not constitute grounds for assault and, looking at the language of the statute regarding alleged strangulation, there is no allegation of stupor or loss of consciousness. I ask your honor to consider this in the light of the factors that strongly support his release on his own recognizance,” legal aid lawyer Nora Wallace told the judge.

“Yesterday we dealt with a bus operator who was brutally attacked and suffocated while doing his job. The criminal justice system has failed us,” said Frank Annicaro, senior vice president of MTA Bus Company.

The incident happened Tuesday in the heart of Bedford-Stuyvesant, where a B26 bus and Legall’s car collided with each other.

Prosecutors say Legall ran onto the bus in an instant, broke through a plexiglass partition and grabbed the 68-year-old bus driver by the throat.

The driver was not seriously injured. However, according to MTA officials, the violent encounter was captured on the bus’s on-board camera.

“There was no conversation. There was no quarrel ahead of time, I burst through the door, breached the bus, entered the bus operator’s compartment and started choking him and then terrorizing the passengers. Passengers were on board, they were terrorized. We were all running in fear,” Annicaro said.

Legall was arrested at the scene and arraigned on Wednesday afternoon.

He was charged with second-degree assault and strangulation.

Despite the prosecutor’s objections, the judge did not set bail and instead released Legall on supervised release.

“You spit on the operator, put your finger on him, threaten him with bodily harm? This is very serious and we take it with the utmost seriousness,” said JP Patafio, vice president of the Transport Workers Union.

New York City Transit Authority President Demetrius Crichlow issued a statement saying: “The madman who jumped over a barrier to brutally punch and choke a bus operator trying to transport New Yorkers around Brooklyn, in so doing, demonstrated a complete disregard for humanity, decency and passenger safety. bus.”

This is just the latest of dozens of attacks on public transport workers this year. This included a 64-year-old station cleaner who was almost stabbed to death last month.

“These are the rules. The prosecutor takes steps to keep this person off the street. And now the judge just let her go free. I don’t understand it,” Annicaro said.

The judge said he took into account the fact that Legall was a single parent to his one-year-old child, worked full-time and had never been arrested before. But critics say it is an example of what is broken in the criminal justice system.

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